126 GBP for a half set of irish made pipes sound a bit alarming, doesn’t it? If they really are as great as the seller describes them as, it’s a real bargain
That’s just the opening bid. I’ve seen a few other half sets made by this maker, Mark Donoghue, but I haven’t yet seen any regulators made by him. His pipes look similar to Froment’s (mounts, ferrules, etc). He seems to be based in Castlemaine, Co. Kerry, not too far from Kenmare, AF’s former stomping-ground. Would he have any connection to Froment?
A Donahoe half set very similar to this - possibly even the same set - was sold at £1500 on Pat D’Arcry’s recently. It won’t sell for £126 on ebay. It’s in Norwich but I don’t know the seller.
I wil be happy if the Williams tops a grand and I suspect Mr Hacket will be likewise.
I’m grateful to Davy for keeping such a close eye on Ebay
I keep an eye on ebay but rarely buy anything other than books or CDs. It’s too risky. Real bargains are rare (and Davy seems to pick them all up). If you spend big money on a chanter and find out it’s a lemon, you’ve got no comeback.
It looks like you’ve a nack of finding bargains. I haven’t bought any chanters through Ebay but Ihave bought 4 chanters through this board, all of them well above £250, but I think I got bargains every time.
The Dave Williams full set now also on Ebay is not all Williams, it looks like a Ginsberg or similar with a Williams chanter.
The drones and regs of the “Williams” set do look like Ginsberg, while the chanter is probably Williams. The key work in particular looks like Ginsberg. It doesn’t look to me like a full set by Williams.
I emailed the seller & asked if the drones & regs were signed. They are not, so I told him the set is not Williams. The chanter is. If he had any sense he’d change the description.
He won’t sell at £3000+ but he might get £2500+ on the basis of the Williams chanter.
He’ll get 3000. Not EVERYONE uses the chiff. I once joked that I could put up a bellows pattern with the word “Rowesome” on it and without stating much in the description I could get bids.
Not frae Dave Williams ye can’t…
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
ps Could be one of oor pipemakers in France bought it…btw my Boxwood Silver and Ivory D Chanter wi C & F Keys and Stop Key by Dave Williams in D is still for sale offers over £2K please. Which of course one day it will sell for,eat yer heart oot Davey…
First time poster here, sorry it is such an unhappy post. I sincerely don’t want to break any faux pauxs by talking negative, but I think it is important to warn the community about the Donahoe set on eBay. So forgive me if this post is inappropriate, and take it with good intentions.
I contacted the seller to enquire about shipping costs. He offered to take it off auction and send it to me for GBP600, shipping and all. Fishy, considering it was early in the auction and he already had bids. He sent more pics, which weren’t great quality, but the item looked nice.
Here’s where it gets really fishy: He can’t take PayPal due to a recent divorce (Hrmmm??) and offered to use the “eBay secure invoice” system and I received emails “from” eBay instructing me to send cash via mailgram (a natural no-no). Further, the emails “from” ebay originated from a yahoo address, and were confirmed to be fraudulent by eBay.
He sent a second request, and another email arrived from the equally dubious “eBay Loss Prevention Department” ensuring me it was safe to send via mailgram. Also a fraudulent email.
Since this happened, I have seen the bids going up on the item. If anyone is sniping this, or has bid on it, please be warned. eBay has been notified of the suspicious activity, but it can talk 72 hours for them to investigate, while the auction goes out tomorrow night.
